Apparatus and method for handling sheetlike material



L. IVERSEN Dec. 27, 1938.

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR HA NDLING SHEETLIKE MATERIAL Filed Sept. 27, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet l Lor'elifiifiiisen M,MMWA

Dec. 27, 193s.

. L. IVERSEN I APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR HANDLING SHEETLIKE MATERIAL Filed Sept. 27, 1957 2-Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Dec. 27, 1938 I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR HANDLING SHEETLIKE MATERIAL Application September 27, 1937, Serial No. 165,808

Claims. (01. 80-43) This invention relates to apparatus and method for handling sheet-like material and is herein illustrated and described as applied to the feeding of large sheets to a rolling mill for skin passing after an anneal, although it will'be understood that the invention has numerous other applications.

It is common practice in the manufacture of sheet-like material to roll steel in strip form to the width and gauge desired, cut it into lengths, stack the cut pieces and anneal them, following this annealing by a temper pass. The pieces are fed one at a time to the mill and are generally manipulated by hand. Frequently thepieces are of large size and are cumbersome to handle. The capacity of the mill employed is generally limited by the ability of the workmen to supply it with sheets.

The present invention provides an apparatus and method whereby the handling of the sheets is facilitated, the manual labor is eased, and the production rate is increased.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating a present preferred embodiment of the invention,

Figure 1 is a top plan view, partly broken away, of the apparatus;

Figure 2 is a vertical view taken on the line II-l1 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a vertical section on the line m-In of Figure 1, and

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic view illustrating a limit switch employed.

The drawings illustrate a mill for temper passing comprising spaced housings 2 which support working rolls 3 having backing rolls 4. The mill is driven in the usual manner and is set to impart the desired temper to sheets which are fed to it.

The sheets, stacked in piles of convenient height, are brought to the mill on a roll conveyor 5, each stack in turn constituting a source of supply for workmen who feed the material sheet by sheet to the mill. The rolls of the roll table 5 may be driven or not as desired. At the end of the roll table 5 there is provided a feed table having table rollers 6 onto which a stack S of sheets may be advanced. In Figure 2 the stack S is shown resting on wooden strips W which are in turn supported by the rollers. Generally speaking, it will be found satisfactory to push the stack S onto the rollers 6 manually. With the stack thus placed, the feed table is tilted to the dotted line position of Figure 2, the sheets being restrained from sliding ofi by an upstanding flange 7-. With the stack of sheets thus tilted, they are manually fed one by one to the mill. If the sheets are of small size they may be handled by one workman, but the general practice is to make the sheets large, in which case two men will be employed. These men can stand at the positions ,(A) and (B) of Figure 1, and in the use of the apparatus they will grasp the top sheet t of the tilted stack S and turn it over and onto a feed table indicated generally by the reference character 8. The feed table is secured to the mill housings and consists of a frame:9 carrying belt pulleys In, It, l2 and I3. Belts It extend around these pulleys and are suitably tensioned by an adjustment of the pulleys H and i2. The pulley I2 is driven by a variable speed motor |5 which drives the belts at aspeed generally corresponding to the peripheral speed of the work rolls 3. It is only necessary for the workmen to lay the sheet on the belts M to bring about its entry into the mill. The table 8 is provided with a side guide Hi. The belts M are inclined so that the sheets tend to have a com-- ponent of movement toward the side guide i5 as they move toward the mill; that is to say, they have a component of movement to the left as viewed in Figure 1. This arrangement makes it unnecessary for the workmen to align the sheets with the mill, the alignment being automatically effected by the belts M as the sheet is carried forward.

The supply table has a base i mounted on rails iii. The base has a rack l9 meshing with a manually operable pinion whereby the position of the supply table toward or away from the feed table 8 may be adjusted as desired.

The base I1 is provided with standards 2| for pins 22 about which the sheet support proper is rocked when the table is moved from the full line to the dotted line position of Figure 2 or vice versa. The pins 22 rockably support arms 23 which are connected by structural members 24 to support the table rollers 6. The arms 23 also carry the side flange 1.

Each arm 23 has a gear segment 25 formed thereon, these gear segments meshing with pinions 26 on a shaft 21. The shaft 21 is connected trols may be duplicated at the position (13) if deautomatically. Such control may be readily effected by interposing a limit switch in the circuit. In Figure 1 I have diagrammatically shown a limit switch 34 which is connected to the shaft 21 by a chain and sprocket drive 35. The limit switch is made adjustable so that the tilting of the table may be adjusted to any desired degree. In Figure 4 I have shown diagrammatically how this may be done. The limit switch drive just described actuates a shaft 36 carrying a disc 31 having a slot 38 therein. A switch actuating roller 39 is adjustably positioned in this slot. Upon rotation of the disc 31 it actuates the arm 40 of the limit switch element M. By adjusting the roller 39 to the desired position in the slot 38 the tilting of the table may be determined at any dwired angle. a

The supply table will be positioned quite close to the edge of the feed table 8 and in addition the flange 1 is provided with a wide top face 42 which in the tilted position (see Figure 2) lies quite close to the edge of the table 8. There is therefore little or no danger of sheets catching between the supply table and the feed table, but if desired a board or plate 43 may be interposed to prevent sheets from dropping between the two tables to a point where it will be diflicult to extricate them.

My invention presents many advantages. The stacked sheets can be brought conveniently and quickly to a point adjacent the mill and they can be fed quickly and easily to the mill. Stooping and heavy lifting on the part of the workmen are eliminated, the sheets being simply turned or flipped. over onto the feed table which automatically aligns them and feeds them to the mill. The workmen are so positioned that there is no danger attendant upon their handling of the material.

I have used the word sheet herein as one of general definition and not of limitation, and it is intended to include all sheet-like articles of a character for which the invention is designed,

whether they be classified technically as sheets, plates, strip sheet or otherwise.

I have illustrated and described a present preferred embodiment of the invention, but it will be understood that it is not limited to the form shown and may be otherwise embodied within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In combination with a mill for rolling sheets,

.a feed table on the entering side. of the mill, a conveyor terminating alongside the feed tablefor bringing a stack of sheets into position to be supplied successively to the feed table, the conveyor having a section which may be tilted, with a stack of sheets'thereon, to bring the sheets into a vert cally extending plane, thus facilitating feeding ofthe sheets to the mill, and means preventing sheets in a stack on such section from sliding off when the section is in tilted position.

2. In combination with a mill for rolling sheets,

a feed table, a supply table alongside the feed table, means for tilting the supply table, with a stack of sheets thereon, to bring the sheets into a vertically extending plane, thus facilitating feeding of the sheets to the mill, and means for preventing sheets from sliding of! the supply table when it is in tilted position.

side the mill adapted to receive a 3. In combination with a mill for rolling sheets. a feed table, a supply table alongside the feed table, means for tilting the supply table about an axis extending in general parallelism to the direction of travel of sheets through the mill, with a stack of sheets thereon, to bring the sheets into a vertically extending plane, thus facilitating feeding of the sheets to the mill, and means for preventing sheets from sliding off the supply table when it is so tilted. 4

4. In combination with a mill for rolling sheets, a supply table adjacent the entering side of the mill adapted to support a stack of sheets which are to be fed successively through the mill, means for tilting the supply table, with a stack of sheets thereon, to bring the sheets into a vertically extending plane, thus facilitating feeding of the sheets to the mill, and means for preventing sheets from sliding off the supply table when it is so tilted.

5. In combination with a mill for rolling sheets, a supply table adjacent the entering side of the mill adapted to support a stack of sheets which are to be fed successively through the mill, means for tilting the supply table about an axis extending ingeneral parallelism to the direction of feed of sheets to the mill, with a stack of sheets thereon, to bring the sheets into a vertically extending plane, thus facilitating feeding of the sheets to the mill, and means for preventing sheets from sliding oif the supply table when it is so tilted.

6. In combination with a mill for rolling sheets, a supply table adjacent the entering side of the mill adapted to support a stack of sheets which are to be fed successively through the mill, means for tilting the supply table, means for preventing sheets from sliding ofi the supply table when it is so tilted, with a stack of sheets thereon, to bring the sheets into a vertically extending plane, thus facilitating feeding of the sheets to the mill, and means for adjusting the degree of tilt of the supply table.

'7. In combination with a mill for rolling sheets, ,a supply table adjacent the entering side of the mill adapted to support a stack of sheets which are to be fed successively through the mill, means for tilting the supply table, means for preventing sheets from sliding off the supply table when it is so tilted, with a stack of sheets thereon, to bring the sheets into a vertically extending plane, thus facilitating feeding of the sheets to the mill, and means for adjusting the position of the supply table relative to the mill.

8. In a method of handling and rolling sheets, the steps consisting in conveying a stack of sheets to a position alongside a rolling mill, the sheets lying in a generally horizontal plane, tilting the stack so that the sheets lie in vertically extending planes, successivelyturning the sheets in the tilted stack around their lower edges and bringing them to a horizontal plane in general position to be fed to the mill, and advancing the sheets successively to and through the mill.

9. Apparatus for the rolling and handling of sheets comprising a rolling mill, asupport alongstack of sheets lying in substantial horizontal planes, means for tilting the stack of sheets intoa vertically extending plane so that successiv sheets may be readily turned about their lower edges and into a horizontal plane. in general position to be fed to the mill, and a support in front of the mill for receiving sheets thus successively taken from the tilted stack.

memes 3 10. Apparatus for the rolling and handling of sheets comprising a rolling mill, a support alongside the mill adaptedto receive a. stack of sheets lying in substantial horizontal planes, means for tilting the stack of sheets into a vertically extending plane so that successive sheets may be readily turned about their lower edges and into a horizontal plane in general position to be fed to the mill, a support in front of the mill for receiving sheets thus successively taken from the tilted stack, and means for advancing said sheets successively to the mill.

EDRENZ IVERSEN. 

